Noir Syndrome is a procedurally generated Detective Murder-Mystery with a new story every time! Featuring slick pixel art animations and a jazzy soundtrack, the player is thrown right in to a highly stylized vision of film noir.

October 27, 2014

As you may have heard in my past updates or on our various social media, I have been hard at work on a new project over the past few months. I have, however, still found time to sneak in the occasional update to Noir Syndrome. Overall, the game is in a state where I feel comfortable leaving it as is. Providing additional free content for nearly half a year after release seemed foreign to many, but I loved improving the game at every step.

As with all of my game projects, Noir Syndrome holds a special place in my heart. I cannot say that it will never be updated again, as I have gone back and changed games that were many years dead. However, I must announce that my focus is now shifting completely to my new project, Defragmented.

For those wondering what my next project is all about: Defragmented is a third-person 3D cyberpunk action-rpg. Since this is, after all, a board specifically for Noir Syndrome, I won't go much further in to the details of that. If you would like to follow the development of my latest work I recommend watching the IndieDB page.

As always, I extend my greatest thanks to all of you who've played Noir Syndrome, whether you've spoken to me about it or not. Simply knowing there is an audience out there enjoying my work is a reward in itself. For those of you looking to stay connected to my work and Glass Knuckle Games, I'll provide a few links below. I hope to hear from all of you again in the future!

About This Game

Noir Syndrome is a procedurally generated Detective Murder-Mystery with a new story every time! Featuring slick pixel art animations and a jazzy soundtrack, the player is thrown right in to a highly stylized vision of film noir. Visit locations, interrogate suspects, search for clues, and eventually solve the case before the killer escapes - or you wind up dead yourself.

Features:

Procedural generation: Murder mystery scenarios with a new culprit and clues each time, every play-through is unique.

Permanent choices: NPCs, interactions, death, and a slew of other features will all persist until a new game is started. Every action counts!

Notebook: Collect vital clues in the detective's notebook to help narrow down suspects and solve the case.

Investigation: Interact with and examine numerous objects and characters in a number of environments in the search for more information on the killer.

Countdown: Given a set number of days to solve the mystery, each area visited will decrement the time left, adding to the urgency of every case.

Freedom of choice: Attempt to solve the case, or live out your remaining time doing as you please - be it fighting the law, going after gang members, or just seeing the city.

Gunplay: Combat is generally to be avoided as a single bullet will take down the player. However, when necessary, the revolver is always available for use.

Noir Syndrome is an interesting game. It tries to bring in something new to the Rogue-lite market, by putting you in the shoes of a private detective. From there, you have several places to visit to gather clues and suspects, while trying not to step on the wrong faction's toes. While the concept is fantastic, the game's scope is much more modest. I was expecting much more from it, and it's not what it was trying to deliver. Sessions last about 15 minutes.

There is a rampant murderer in the city (for cult reasons), and you can visit every landmark freely, spending one day to explore each area. I was expecting a bit more FTL or WeirdWorlds influence, with a deep lore that one could discover by playing it over and over again, but this is purely a mechanical game. Unfortunately, its mechanics are not robust enough to carry it, in my opinion.

Presentation The game's artstyle is not beautiful, nor unique. You can probably get that from the screenshots. But it's functional, and to be honest, it didn't prove very relevant in my enjoyment of the game. A great artstyle would certainly make it more enjoyable, but I could distinguish everything of important here, so it's fine.

The Music, however, was pretty neat! As you would expect from a Noir game, it features a lot of Jazz, with a bit of chiptune influences at times, and also Classical music in a couple of places (expensive hotels and the hunting club, for example). But for the most part, it's jazz. And it fits the detective vibe perfectly. It's not something I'd listen to on my own time (it's simple, and not a lot of variety), but I didn't feel like turning it off while playing the game!

Now that this is out of their way, I'll explain how the game works.

You have 14 days to explore the city and find out who the culprit is, and bring him to justice. You have various different areas of the city to explore. You can explore one each day. In those areas there are objects and people. In a restaurant, for example, you can speak to people there, and also explore the seats and tables for clues. Each area functions similarly. This exploration phase plays like a 2D side-scroller. People can be either of 2: normal people, and sellers. Normal people can give you suspects (or give a very generic and not very convincing argument against them being a suspect... just flavour text), while vendors will try to sell you Food, Lockpicks or Bullets. Examinable objects can also give you Locks, Bullets, Money, or Clues. You'll need Locks to open doors or steal from vaults, and Bullets to... well... kill people. More on that later.

Clues are a bit more interesting (although not too much). For your deductive reasoning, you'll have to find suspects that fit certain criteria. After you learn about a person, you'll know all of their attributes. Clues will provide you with the killer's attributes. Each person has a faction, an occupation, a gender, and a name. The faction includes Police, Mob, and Civillian. Occupation can go from Artist or Chef to Tailor or Driver. Once you think you've found who the killer is, you check him on your notebook, and his location will be shown on the map. Every clue is about the killer. This is very important (and also a big issue). No matter where you find it, the clue is always about the murderer. Also, the clues are Binary. A gun holster, for example, tells you (s)he's either from the Mob, or the Police. An ornate fabric tell you (s)he's either a Tailor, or a Dancer. And so on. There can't be contradictory clues, so you'll end up collecting just enough to find which aspect is common between them. If no one fits those traits, you'll need to speak to more people to get more suspects.

--- This is a very uninteresting way of making you a detective, isn't it? There's barely any brainwork from the player! It's just about running around the place, inspecting every random background object (because that's where you get clues), and then finding the right choices. It doesn't feel like you're playing a detective, and every game ends up playing too similarly. Since every clue is about the killer, you don't really need to go to the crime scenes or follow leads to find anything about him(her). You can just explore any place that's convenient to you, and you'll easily succeed. This is probably the biggest issue I have with it. There's not a lot of thinking in this game, and it completely takes the "detective" part out of the game.---

On the City, there are different possible events. There are Civillian Gatherings, Police/Mob takeovers, Crime Scenes, and fishy places. About he latter, I have no ideia... You get that information from the people, but there is nothing different in those areas. The first 3 are areas dominated by said faction. This is relevant when you killed someone from the Police/Mob and left witnesses, or stole from either, as factions can then be hostile towards you, and shoot on sight. On Hard mode, there's always an hostile faction from the start. CrimeScenes are areas without people, where you can look for clues, without the risk of getting murdered.

Other than that, one important aspect is the Hunger Meter. Yes. This has a ♥♥♥♥ing hunger meter. I'm sorry, that's rude. But seriously... Why?! The game has nothing to do with survival, except for the fact that you have to buy food not to die. Each time you examine something, or open doors, you'll lose 3 points. A piece of food can give you from 100 to 300, depending on the price. I guess this puts a stop to spamming Z constantly, but it doesn't feel necessary to have such a "feature".

--- This is a good segway! The game is far too easy. There aren't too many suspects, and it's easy to find his attributes from the clues. Normal mode is not challenging at all. Hard Mode, can be fairly challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Food could be one of them, but you learn to play with it. The main reason is the factions that's trying to kill you. You have very limited bullets (1-2, usually), so you can't just kill everyone, which is good. However, while finding clues is very easy, finding all the suspects can take more effort, especially, when there's a faction that will kill you immediately, and there may also be hitmen on you, that seem to spawn randomly. You can literally enter an area and just die, because he was right in front of you, and you couldn't escape. This helps the game having challenge, but still doesn't feel like being the detective was the focus. The detective part is a very thin layer, surrounded by all these other systems trying to keep you from examining it closely.---

I think I've covered most of it. It's a purely mechanical game, of getting clues and suspects, and then arresting them. Killing them ends the game, but not with a victory. There are some special systems, like stealing from factions (that piss them off) or killing everyone in an area not to leave witnesses, but those play a very minor role in the overall game. This is because the game isn't hard at all! When you die, it's mostly out of your control.

The only narrative, is present in the murderers appartment, where there are random logs (6), with a passage of his Egypt-mythology related killing spree. Nothing substancial at all, though. There are no interesting plots throughout the city, no lore, no interesting random events, nothing of the sort. It was what I was mostly looking forward to, unfortunately...

Conclusion. It's not an awful game. It's actually pretty solid, for what it is. If you're looking for a very simple game (perhaps a good first project), then go ahead. I enjoyed the game, but I don't consider it great at all. Lots of wasted potential, but an interesting effort nonetheless. Only higher from here!

Better than the reviews say. It's a very fun game and is pretty fun to replay as well. Eventhough there are no other cases to tackle, besides the Dinner Party, it is still some pretty good fun. And solving a case is pretty rewarding, and bonuses are given after doing/completing certain things.

This game has a great concept, but it unfortunately really falls short, almost feeling unfinished. The game has huge potential in its mechanics and the idea of procedurally generated mystery in general, but it needs the story element (the mystery genre's strength) to be interesting.

The atmosphere is enjoyable (the soundtrack and art style are very nice), but the gameplay totally took me out of the mood. At first, I completely didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing. It is not intuitive, and there isn't a very good introduction/explanation of the controls. You have to focus so much on figuring out how the game works that it's impossible to get immersed in it.

The story elements don't link up at all with the gameplay, which is a big part of why it's so confusing to figure out. For example, you're no more likely to find a clue at the crime scene than in ANY other place in the game. A lot of things feel very luck based, and it's frustrating to realize a lot of things you were trying to do were just a waste of time and resources. The game does give you a lot of freedom in what you can do, but there aren't logical consequences for every type of action.

Everything you do in the game is done the same way (selectively spamming the interact button until you have enough data) and then solving a simple Guess Who logic puzzle. Before you understand how it works, it's confusing and jarring, and once you do, it's overly easy. There are a lot of interesting elements (like hunger meter and managing resources, factions, etc.) but without narrative to contextualize them, they feel empty. It seems like the game is mostly figuring out how the game works, instead of actually playing the game.

The Dinner Party mode is a condensed version (1 night in a house vs. a week in the whole city), which I actually found a lot more enjoyable. There's more of a real-time pressure, and it's easier to get immersed because the investigative style makes more sense on this scale. The "madness" mechanic (essentially, the other characters will sometimes want to shoot you) makes you stay in the moment and keep moving throughout the house. However, again, once you figure out how it works, it gets old quick.

If I'm a little harsh on this game, it's because it has such fantastic potential and concept that got me really excited, and it simply doesn't deliver. I wish the devs kept it gestating a little longer, and spent as much time on integrating story as they did with coming up with (frankly really interesting) game mechanics. Yes, you can play over and over. Unfortunately, it doesn't really make you /want/ to.

Noir Syndrome is a murder mystery with the right combination of strategy and randomness to keep the game interesting and replayable. It's not perfect, but it's certainly worth it if you can catch it on sale. Plus I caught Walter White. I'd give it an 8/10 and say its a fun game to pick up every once in a while.

A game where if you rob a vault when it's a murder scene you get away scott free!

A very fun little game. When I first started this game I seriously had no idea how you were supposed to do anything but eventually I figured it out and started having more fun.

I kind of like that the game doesn't explain that much to you and the badges and costumes are fun to get. I'm really liking the additions that have been added to the game such as the hunting club and sandbox mode.

I do wish there was more to it, like a mode where you can play and solve as many cases as you can before you die (to try and see what you can do before you die each run) but still it's quite fun and a good time waster.

The music is also quite fun and while I have probably died more than I have actually solved a case, I still have fun even when i'm fighting for my life.

First of all, let's get something out of the way: this game was QUITE CLEARLY made for a device such as a tablet. Now that that's out of the picture, Noir Syndrome is a very strange take on what one could call the detective games' genre.

Gameplay is a simple "look for clues" ritual, where you click the investigate button near a backdrop and have the potential of finding evidence that points you in the direction of one of the suspects or you click the same button near a person and talk to them, potentially adding someone to your suspects' list. The reason this is quirky is because at the end of a session you may not have had either enough evidence to point you to the real culprit (and thus force you to guess who the culprit is for the session) or, and this one's a real pain and somewhat usual phenomenon, you don't even have the culprit on your suspects' list yet; if this is the case, you have lost, period.

Other game mechanics are a hunger system, where you are forced to interact with salespeople to get food of various qualities for differing prices, a wanted system, where either or both the police and the mob are out to get you, and essentially a pressuring system where at some points during the game the culprit will send hitmen out to kill you. There's also a "quest" system so you can earn a little more money either by killing assigned targets or delivering mail to the intended recipient, but for both of those you need to have found the respective items to access the quest givers via the quirky random chance while inspecting the background, which is the main source of your character getting hungry by the way...

Noir Syndrome comes with three difficulty modes where the main factors are how awful are your starting conditions and how expensive every commodity in the game is. Yes, that steak isn't going to pay itself in Impossible Mode if you haven't been improving your money-hoarding skill that persists through different game sessions, so you'll have to start at Easy and work your way towards it.

...Which, after all, is Noir Syndrome's greatest sin. The game is awfully very much about strategy and luck, as you have to choose which areas you go into in order to get clues while taking into account if the police or the mob have a chance to be represented in the area, and also managing your scarce money to buy bullets, lockpicks and the ever-important food at different locations. But after you've raised your money-hoarding skills to the point of making money become just another number you casually look at while at the hardest of difficulties, it's almost like you're playing on Easy again if you have the right strategy, and the game becomes once again about how lucky you are to find the clues you need. This makes Noir Syndrome fit into the category of mindless fun: at some point, you'll be doing something mechanical, taking the same options as you play essentially the same game over and over again. And it can stop being fun to become boring.

As you've noticed, I don't recommend this game. The reason? It simply isn't worth the full cost, and it hinges on your willingness to continue grinding away until the game becomes "easy enough" at each of the difficulties you'll be playing in. If the game was somehow grander, most of the clues less redundant and/or less narrowing, or if the ideal strategy wasn't too mechanical to the point of almost making you shut out cognitive thought and forcing you to reacquire it when something immediate happens (such as a very innoportune hitman that once killed triggers the police/mob to want to gun you down), I would have recommended this game because it is, surprisingly, fun to go around poking random stuff for random clues which may or may not be enough to catch the culprit.

Noir Syndrome is one of those games that falls into the quirky category of "For its price, it's pretty good." In spite of the claims of the developer, to say that each playthrough of Noir Syndrome generates a new and unique procedurally generated Murder Mystery story is a bit of a stretch. That being said, it's still a fun puzzler that mixes in enough demand for quick reflexes, gut instincts, and the ability to bluff with confidence to make it a very worthwhile experience.

In Noir Syndrome, you play an anonymous flatfoot who wakes up one day to a city under siege from the mysterious murderer Anubis. You are given 14 days to explore the city, interviewing citizens for tips and suspects, searching through garbage cans and police desks for clues, and avoiding the bullets of the police and the mob (assuming you were rude enough to tick off either party somehow). Over time, Anubis will strike again and again, reducing your score but also helping weed out suspects. Visiting crime scenes burns through your valuable time, but searching for clues and chatting with citizens burns calories, so between the actual detective work you'll need to scrounge up funds and get a bite to eat. You can also spend cash on tips from the mob, lockpicks to aid in your more "thorough" investigations, and bullets for taking out those who take offense at your methods.

Once you have enough clues and suspects, you'll be able to narrow down the names and know for certain who your man is. Of course, if time's running short, you might be forced to make an educated guess and hope for the best; given the choice between walking into a nest of furious gunmen and placing your faith in a coinflip, sometimes half-baked detective work is really your best bet. Each game takes about 20 minutes to complete, so it's not like you aren't committed to success, but at the same time losing isn't exactly the end of the world.

Eventually, the game will get a touch dull; there's only one city layout, and the number of variables they can flip around really isn't that huge. Fortunately, there are three difficulty settings which drastically affect the experience, 30 in-game Achievements to acquire that provide you with bonuses for future cases, and an alternate Dinner Party play mode that forces you to find your man in a fraction of the time of a normal game, and which unlocks a variety of goofy costumes (always a solid selling point).

Noir Syndrome accomplishes all this with a presentation better suited for an NES than a radio serial broadcast. It might not scratch any authentic murder-mystery itches, but it's a clever little puzzler that's well worth the price of admission.

Well isn't this a nice little game, a creative idea executed fairly well.

The idea behind it is you're a private investigator in a violent town, trying to arrest an assassin. As a result, you investigate this filthy town while trying to stay alive.The clues are randomly placed in the environment and you have to investigate every nook and cranny to get the clues that will reveal who the true culprit is. Some clues are more decisive than others, for example, a bullet casing may indicate the culprit is a Mobster or a member of the Police, while a Police ID precisely tells you the culprit affiliation.You have to figure out 3 things : Affiliation (Civilian, Mobster, Policeman), Job (Driver, Chef, etc.) and Sex (Male or Female).Of course you can just guess and try an arrest but if you get it wrong you fail.As to how gather suspects, you have to talk to the people in various places, crime scenes don't have people lingering about but have generally more clues and some events make people amass in a place, particularly if they're from one affiliation.Anyway, this becomes quite important when playing a higher difficulty than normal, because either the police or the mob want you dead, so the investigation becomes much harder with shootouts, especially since bullets are limited and costly, that's why it's wise to avoid places where the affiliation that wants you dead hangs out.Bullets aren't the only thing that can kill you however, hunger can as well, you have to manage your money to buy the right resources like lockpicks, bullets or food to survive, everytime you investigate or talk with someone you get hungrier until you die.Some places need lockpicks to explore fully and you can even rob some places where hopefully you don't get spotted or you make another faction your enemy.Everytime you start a new game, the culprit and the clues are randomized, as is the faction that hunts you down, the events of course are randomized too, as is the place you can find clues.The gameplay is free and you can go whenever you want mostly, but you have a time limit in days to catch the culprit... or you might just go on a murder spree.All in all this is a repeatable noir detective story with a great soundtrack and a great feel to it. Recommended, but might get old pretty fast.

There's no real substance to the 'clues' or game mechanics, and there's nothing really detective-y about it. There are murders which produce crime scenes; this could have been cool - it could have featured a chalked out body with higher probability of clues, and witnesses to question. Instead, you get the same area, and gameplay simply boils down to pressing Z all over a few locations until you have enough clues to blame-by-logic.

Incredibly simple but rather entertaining. Controls consist of but a few buttons and the gameplay really just consists of matching up clues with suspects. Not very deep or challenging at all but still fun.

You have two weeks before the mysterious killer known as Anubis assassinates the mayor. Ask around to find suspects, and narrow down your list by finding clues to the muderer's identity. Try to avoid the wrath of the police and the mob, because they'll kill you on sight. Or play the dinner party mode, where you're locked in with the killer, and the other guests occasionally go mad and kill you. Collect badges to level up your subsequent characters, and play on three difficulty modes, all of them challenging. Noir Syndrome is great fun with procedurally generated mysteries that usually don't last longer than ten minutes, but there are some obvious flaws.

Controls are fully rebindable, as they always should be in a PC game. There are only five action keys, but a couple would have been helpful. The "investigate" key handles all actions except shooting, which is quite annoying when someone is standing in front of an object you want to investigate or a door you want to enter, but the game insists on making you talk instead.

The interface is a bit clunky as well. Using multiple screens to try to manage a very small amount of information on the suspects is rather ridiculous. The game doesn't let you cross off suspects who don't match the clues you've gathered, and you can't un-designate a culprit once you've selected one (though you can change which one you'll arrest if you talk to him or her).

The tutorial is bare-bones; some will appreciate learning the mechanics on their own, but it would have been nice to learn more before being thrown into the game. On the whole, though, there's a lot of pixelly fun to be had here.

This is actually extremely fun. I only got a little bit of time put in so far, but the formula and gameplay is absolutely fitting to what the theme is. It's akin to playing a (board)game of Clue (bad example, but best I could think of) with malicious AI's. It's exceptionally fun and I will definitely be putting in more time very soon. Thank you for this little piece of well attuned entertainment.

Game really has the incredible atmosphere and flavor of film noir. Proceduraly generated events are satisfying and suggest a greater story. The game only starts showing its flair and difficulty on hard mode, so its best to use normal a bit like a tutorial. This game is well worth it, so give it a go!

Noir Syndrome isn't a terrible game, but it lacks in-depth gameplay. In this game, you solve cases by asking questions and finding clues, but the way you do so is redundant. How do you find clues? Rather than actually looking for a clue, you just press the 'Z' button whenever you stand near something interactable and hope you get lucky enough to get a clue. In other words, you don't find clues in this game; you just wait until the game decides to hand you a clue. How do you get information out of people? The same exact way. Press 'Z' and hope they give you information. No story, no dialogue options, just a 'Z' button. A successful detective game needs to make the player feel like they are actually solving the case themselves. Make them find the clues; make them interrogate suspects. Don't reduce everything a good detective game needs to one simple button. This game is playable, but the shallow gameplay will ultimately lead you to let the game sit in your library untouched for a long time.

This game is awesome! It's constantly changing so you can always replay and if you need more of a challenge, just try hardcore mode! This game is definently worth it, as it's so fun to be the detective or being a wanted criminal!

This game is exactly as advertised, a procedural detective game. Sadly the result is a bland experience.The clues, suspects, and locations where something can be found are random, this also means that the story -- such as it is -- makes no sense at all. What this leads to is a detective game where you don't care about the story and you just go about at random.And the gameplay just isn't interesting. Everywhere you go it is the same. Walk up to someone or something and press Z. Walk up to the next person or thing and press Z. Shoot and kill someone with X. Z, walk, X, walk, Z, Z.

Really nice rogue-lite crime procedural where you take on the role of a gumshoe trying to solve a case. Each 'episode' lasts about 10 minutes so this is perfect if you just want to spend a short amount of time on a game and keep revisiting it.

Noir Syndrome is agame that hits all the right targets: it's stylish, has a good story and is, most importantly, fun. The player's goal is to travel around various buildings in a 60s Chicago town, collecting clues and learning of possible suspects. However, you are only human, and in this mystery game hunger and hitmen sent by the culprit because you know too much are also your enemies. Anyone anywhere in this town is a suspect, but you need to find someone who's backstory fits the clues you have gathered. Then finally when the culprit is obvious, you locate them and apprehend them.

This game has certainly been worth 5 quid, maybe more (And that is NOT. repeat NOT a hint to raise the price, guys). The general rush of desperately trying to piece these vague clues together while deaths occur all around you is an experience not usually encountered in other games. Beside that, the way you execute justice is entirely up to you. Want some gun action? Go bounty hunting for the Hunt Club. Want a challenge? Rob a shop or kill a gangster and have the police and mob on your tail too! Hungry? Go to the diner and grab a ham and cheese plate. It's basically 8 bit, scaled down GTA.10/10. Case Closed. Thanks, Glass Knuckle.